18 Sep 2016

Based on his many positive comments in the past, Brazil legend Pele is a big admirer of fellow Brazilian Philippe Coutinho, and the three-time World Cup winner has once again hailed Liverpool's exciting attacker.

When asked this week about his favourite current Brazilian players, Pele told ESPN:

"We have a lot of players in Europe, but to me Coutinho is one of the best players. Everybody in Brazil was disappointed because he was not in the team [for World CUp 2014]".

Pele's previous comments about Coutinho:

* Mar 2015: "Brazil has many brilliant players in Europe...but most don’t have Philippe’s experience. He grew up in Europe, moving to Italy when he was just 17 or 18 – so he’s a more experienced player already."

* Apr 2016: "I travel so much, I don’t get the opportunity to watch too many Premier League matches, but Coutinho is a player that I follow".

Coutinho dodged a bullet by being left out of Brazil's 2014 World Cup squad, and he should thank his lucky stars that he didn't take part in 7-1 annihilation at the hands of Germany.

All the players who participated in that game will forever be remembered for that debacle, but Coutinho is unencumbered by that embarrassment, and will hopefully be part of Brazil's new generation.